A look at the Libya safe house that was attacked

The safe house intended to protect Americans after deadly consulate attack was also under siege.

CBS News

(CBS News) BENGHAZI, Libya - We are getting our first inside look at one of the buildings that came under fire in Tuesday evening's deadly attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya. A CBS News crew was the first to reach the supposed safe house and this is what they found.

The attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was just the beginning of a terrifying night for the Americans inside. Libyan officials told us their forces helped evacuate 32 Americans out of the consulate as the attackers torched and stormed the compound.

A Libyan commander told CBS News that a convoy of 22 vehicles, two of them armored, raced from the U.S. consulate down a road to a safe house a mile and a half away.

But the safe house they fled to -- which was supposed to be in a secret location -- had become a target.

Just as the U.S. extraction team of commandos arrived to take the Americans to the airport, the house came under heavy fire. It was intense, deadly and accurate.

Everywhere you look on this rooftop, there's evidence of what must have been a ferocious fight. There's damage from automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, and even mortars.

The precise mortar strikes on the house suggest those who launched them knew exactly where to aim.

Clearly, Americans fighting back from this rooftop were hit. Our escort, Libyan commander Abdu Salam, gathered two bloodstained American flak jackets and a helmet to handover to U.S. investigators for evidence.

Libyan officials say it's clear from the second assault on the safe house that those behind the attack were determined that no Americans made it out alive.

CBS News asked the deputy interior minister how the attackers apparently knew where the safe house was. His answer was there are spies everywhere. He admitted there was a possibility of spies within his own security forces. But he added a convoy of 22 vehicles moving through Bengahzi that night at high speed would not have gone unnoticed.